On Vitalogy, the band seems to have caught the Eddie Vedder "angry man"/"troubled thinker" bug as they seemingly let loose any previous restraint; mayhem spills forth in...
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Thanks to its stripped-down, lean production, Vitalogy stands as Pearl Jam's most original and uncompromising album. While it isn't a concept album, Vitalogy sounds like...
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Pearl Jam has always challenged the idea of what a mainstream rock band is capable of, and this single serves as another testing ground for their bizarre experiments. Here...
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Possibly the best Pearl Jam single outside of Jeremy, Go features three of the band's most solid tracks during this period. The title track is possibly the heaviest song...
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"Jeremy," the haunting and riveting single from Pearl Jam's debut release, Ten, struck an intense chord with generation X at the start of the 1990s. A song about a kid...
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Pearl Jam takes the lazy way out on this single, matching up the album version of "Oceans" with three live versions of songs from Ten. To their credit, they are an exciting...
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Before Pearl Jam released their concert tours on CD, fans were treated to singles jam-packed with bonus tracks. This single for "Dissident" is from the band's 1994 CD, Vs.,...
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"Animal" is a pretty typical Pearl Jam single, displaying the raging Seattle grunge guitars and solid melodic sensibilities that enabled them to secure their status as one...
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Merkin Ball offers two songs recorded during the February 1995 sessions for Neil Young's impromptu Mirror Ball record, on which various members of Pearl Jam served as...
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If anything was indicative of Pearl Jam's free-wheeling, spiritually tinged 1998 album Yield, it was frontman Eddie Vedder's willingness to make his earnest,...
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Poor Eddie ("That's Ed To You, Buddy!) Vedder. "I wish I was a neutron bomb...for once I could go off," he groans. "I'm not trying to make a difference,...
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After Pearl Jam stumped the music world by choosing the left-field raga rocker "Who You Are" as the first single from 1996's No Code, the Seattle rockers returned to the...
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With Ten, the world took note of the "commercial" band out of Seattle's grunge scene, and although Pearl Jam's debut may not be ground-breaking music, the necessary...
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Nirvana's Nevermind may have been the album that broke grunge and alternative rock into the mainstream, but there's no underestimating the role that Pearl Jam's Ten played...
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Pearl Jam's chemistry exploded on Vs. with songs like "Daughter" and "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town Restaurant." The biggest seller out of the box. Every...
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Pearl Jam took to superstardom like deer in headlights. Unsure of how to maintain their rigorous standards of integrity in the face of massive commercial success, the band...
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As hard rock priests who bow at the altar of high seriousness, it was only a matter of time before the gentlemen of Pearl Jam came around to the holy sacrament of the...
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Not long after Ten unexpectedly topped the charts, Pearl Jam became notorious for their intense live performances. Even more notable than the group's unbridled energy was...
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Pearl Jam are the Joan Rivers of rock. Once upon a time, you found them mildly amusing. But now after years of just so-so albums, a horrible sense of humor and a grating...
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If anything, Pearl Jam was even more in the wilderness -- at least as far as the mainstream was concerned -- at the beginning of 2000 than they were in the second half of...
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One of the first B-sides attached to a Pearl Jam single, "Dirty Frank" was written and recorded during their tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is reflected in the...
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Most off the wall, it's apparent Pearl Jam was tired of their traditional format (although "Red Mosquito" falls close to the pattern) and recorded with little or no rules....
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A strange phenomenon with anthemic hard rock bands is that when they begin to mature and branch out into new musical genres, they nearly always choose to embrace both the...
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Gripping and passionate, this engaging single puts the listener in the shoes of some of Pearl Jam's most breathtaking moments during their live 2000 tour supporting Binaural...
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Pearl Jam's seventh studio album delivers several knockout punches, each in a
different way. The move is often subtle, swift to the chin but with a careful dance--a splash...
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Of the couple live recordings that Pearl Jam released to retail outlets in 2003, the final show of the band's Australian tour (Live: 02-23-03 - Perth, Australia) is probably...
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As Pearl Jam had done for its 2000 North American tour, the band recorded and released every live show on its 2003 tour, except this time only releasing a couple shows to...
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At the peak of alt-rock in the '90s, Pearl Jam were the biggest band in the world. Nirvana may have kick-started the alt-rock explosion, but not long after Nevermind knocked...
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The first Seattle band to hit the big time after Nirvana, Pearl Jam was not anyone's pick to be successful. Yet, Pearl Jam's brand of hard rock made them more accessible...
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Don’t call it a comeback because Pearl Jam has never really gone away. Rather, the Seattle grunge survivors were simply following their own muse by experimenting under the...
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Of the many, many live albums Pearl Jam publicly released, their October 23, 2003, show at Benaroya Hall is one of the more novel ones. The show itself is a charity event...
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In "Love Boat Captain," Pearl Jam ringleader Eddie Vedder sings "Let the show begin" to an adoring New York audience on the band's first of two shows in the Big Apple. Like...
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Pearl Jam eases into its epic 48-song Mansfield, MA, show with the poignant "Long Road" from the 1996 film Dead Man Walking. It is the perfect opener for these aging...
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Pearl Jam's second night in New York City features a lean 32-song set that more than makes up for the previous evening's mediocrity. Opening with a cool, confident version...
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Joe Strummer once claimed that the Clash had stardom in their hands, then they dropped it on the floor and broke it. Pearl Jam took the opposite tact: they purposely left...
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In some ways, Riot Act is the album that Pearl Jam has been wanting to make since Vitalogy -- a muscular art rock record, one that still hits hard but that is filled with...
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